The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Stop feeling guilty for watching network TV on your DVR — you might not be contributing to the threat of low ratings, as the programming world is starting to take notice of shows that perform well up to a week after airing.

The New York Times reports that the shift comes as networks monitor not only how shows are watched by viewers during the “commercial plus three” or C3 ratings (the time when advertisers pay networks) but for over a whole seven days of sitting on your DVR, waiting for the right time.

Of course, while that might indicate something about a show’s audience, advertisers might not even care, as often ads are aimed at special events within a few days of a show’s airing. Or, as we see it, no one with a DVR is even watching commercials — what would the point in that be?

“More and more our obsession has to be how to engage and count viewers wherever they are,” network programmer Kevin Reilly told the NYT. “If that’s on a DVR, that counts too.”

Even if you’re not watching ads on your DVR, you’re still watching it and at some point, might watch it without a DVR.

“You’d be foolish not to look at the DVR performance as a measure of the potential a program has,” said Alan Wurtzel, the president for research at NBC. “You have to recalibrate everything: what’s a hit; what’s a marginal show; what’s a failure.”

The other thing about DVRs, says the story, is that by now, if you wanted one, you’d have one, and those worried about the costs involved in paying the bills on one aren’t likely to start ponying up the cash now.